


Tangency

by DustOnBothSides



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Brief Mentions of the Siege of Arkanis, Cuddling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Leia Organa Gets Angry, M/M, Sad Kylo Ren, Soft Kylux, Touch-Starved Armitage Hux
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-14 16:44:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18952021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustOnBothSides/pseuds/DustOnBothSides
Summary: A chance meeting between Kylo Ren and General Organa ends up badly. Kylo is inconsolable. Or is he?





	Tangency

> It was supposed to be a standard operation, really.
> 
> Capture the base, take prisoners for interrogation, confiscate supplies and intelligence, and blow the place up. 
> 
> As became the norm, Supreme Leader Ren led the assault himself. It had irked Hux initially, but he got used to it, even started to view it as something positive. If nothing else, at least it raised the troop morale. 
> 
> While Ren and the troops fought their way through the base, Hux stayed behind in the AT-ST and watched the escaping Resistance crafts. Though he could simply issue an order to shoot them all down, he didn’t take any action. This was the new strategy he had devised and Ren agreed to. One which would improve their public image. Open conflicts were to see only a bare minimum of violence. Shooting down escaping crafts was forbidden and using traditional weaponry instead of kyber-powered one recommended. If there was any killing that needed to be done, it was to be carried out by assassins, preferably in ways that not only didn’t point towards the First Order, but even made the Resistance look like a bunch of careless fools who didn’t take proper care of their vehicles and gear. 
> 
> This particular assault was meant to be a retribution for a Resistance attack on one of the Sienar-Jaemus factories, which left the prototype of a newest TIE line in pieces. This was another reason why the Supreme Leader insisted on getting himself involved. He had been anticipating the prototype with great enthusiasm. 
> 
>  
> 
> Hux checked the chrono. The deployment dragged on for longer than expected. 
> 
> Unable to stay still any longer, he activated his comm-link. 
> 
> “Status, ES-0358?” he barked at the stormtrooper captain. 
> 
> “Sir. Some members of the Resistance refused to escape. They have barricaded themselves inside the infirmary and the door seems to be reinforced with cortosis.” 
> 
> Hux frowned. No wonder they couldn’t get in. Cortosis could withstand even the blow of a lightsaber. Which made one think what was so precious inside that _so-called_ infirmary to require such level of security.
> 
> “I’ll be joining you shortly.” He told the captain and switched the comm off. 
> 
> He knew that Ren would force his way into the room eventually, and he didn’t want the Supreme Leader to accidentally destroy some valuable piece of equipment or intelligence. 
> 
> The AT-ST approached the base and stopped as close to the entrance as possible. Hux put his greatcoat on and buttoned it up - it was freezing out there. He selected three snowtroopers to accompany him and stepped out. 
> 
> The air was still and so cold, it felt like pins and needles on his exposed skin. Hux didn’t mind and took a moment to enjoy the scenery. 
> 
> Though the weather was presently calm, he could see proofs of its violent streak at each and every turn. The Resistance base was surrounded by walls of rust-tinged black - mountains comprised of schist and graphite. Their peaks were rounded and perforated by many holes, creating formations which bordered on the surreal - signs that local winds could reach truly ludicrous speeds. He tried to recall when was the last time he actually felt the brush of a breeze against his cheeks, but couldn’t remember anything, though there must’ve been an occasion like that back on Arkanis. He almost felt a strange, creeping sadness, but then he remembered his position and brushed all feelings away. 
> 
> It took but a few moments to reach Ren’s position. He didn’t announce his presence, knowing that Ren had most likely already sensed his approach. Instead he backed away to the wall and watched as the Supreme Leader twirled his lightsaber and plunged it in the wall with such force, drops of liquid durasteel flew in every direction. From the way the surrounding troopers reacted, Hux could guess that this was Ren’s most powerful attempt yet.
> 
> Powerful. 
> 
> Yes. 
> 
> Hux kept his eyes glued to the black-clad figure and the scintillating crimson sword. It felt as if he watched power personified. The way Ren’s muscles flexed. How he frowned in concentration. The way beads of sweat rolled down his face as his shoddy- _looking_ weapon penetrated even the famous cortosis. As he intensified his efforts, Ren snarled. His brow furrowed, upper lip twitched, teeth caught the inside of his lower lip every now and then… yet his eyes were steadfastly fixed on the door. 
> 
> This sight made Hux’s heart beat faster. He revelled in the fact that Ren was too focused on the task at hand to sense his emotions, and imagined himself sliding his hands over Ren’s broad back, his ribs with their taut muscles, his stiff shoulders, and the bulging biceps straining the cloth of his sleeves. And finally, he pictured himself closing his own hands around Ren’s and adding his own strength for that one final push. 
> 
> Suddenly there was a burst of sparks. 
> 
> Hux took a step back. 
> 
> Ren gave the door a kick so forceful, it would put the average fathier to shame, and it fell through, revealing… 
> 
> Hux froze in surprise. 
> 
> There was the Resistance leader Organa, Commander D’Acy as well as some other, lower-ranking individuals. All crowded around the bed of an unconscious woman wrapped in bacta bandages. Hux had initially thought it was the Scavenger, but quickly dismissed the thought. This woman had fair hair and her face was rounder, softer than the Scavenger’s features. 
> 
> It was the perfect opportunity to hack the serpent’s head off. 
> 
> -and Ren switched his lightsaber off. 
> 
> He took a step forward. Organa reacted immediately and placed herself between him and the unconscious woman, fierce look on her face. Hux had to admit that in spite of her short stature, the Resistance General possessed a supremely commanding aura and charisma. 
> 
> “Who. Who is it.” Ren all but whispered. 
> 
> “My daughter.” Answered Organa. 
> 
> “…no. No. No. You can’t say that, mother-“
> 
> “ _Don’t call me that._ ” Organa spat out, her face contorted by pain and anger. “ _My son died **years** ago_. You’ve killed him. Snoke killed him; and you spat on the grave.” 
> 
> Hux could feel a cold barb going through his chest as if those words were meant for him. So _this_ was Ren’s secret. Not long ago he would’ve killed to learn this, but now this knowledge filled him with nothing but unease and a vague nausea. 
> 
> “…no… mother, I’m… I…”Ren stuttered as he slowly backed away into the wall, unable to meet Organa’s look. His lips moved. “ _…no. Don’t say that. Please._ ” His lips worded voicelessly though Hux wasn’t sure anyone but him could tell. 
> 
> “If there’s any humanity left in you, you’ll let us leave.” Organa said, her voice cold and hard. A general’s voice. 
> 
> “…everyone out.” Ren whispered. _“OUT!!!”_
> 
>  
> 
> That night when Hux entered his quarters up on the _Finalizer_ , he felt ill at ease. He felt like he had witnessed something he shouldn’t. A scene which stank of consequences. Considering how knotted his stomach was, he refused his dinner, settling for a couple of protein bars instead. Protein bars and a bottle of Rylothian wine. 
> 
> He had downed the half of the latter by the time he received summons from the Supreme Leader. He bit his lip. There it was. Either he’d get choked and choked and choked again until the thought of divulging this piece of intel would never ever cross his mind, or he’d get that mind of his erased. 
> 
> Either way, there was no hiding from Kylo Ren while he was on the Star Destroyer. Hux didn’t even think to flee. Instead he went straight for the Supreme Leader’s quarters. 
> 
> When he entered, he found Ren sitting on his bed, hands in his lap. All around him there was… -nothing but order. Sure, there were few scattered pieces of training equipment here and there no one had bothered to put away and an arch of paper with half-finished calligraphy exercise (Hux arched an eyebrow) on the table, but nothing was shattered, scorched or gouged. 
> 
> “You heard…” Ren whispered, hunched over. 
> 
> “Yes.” Hux answered, considering lies pointless. 
> 
> “What did you hear?”
> 
> “I heard your mother disowning you.”
> 
> “How did it make you feel?” Ren asked. The general found himself at a loss of words.
> 
> He thought of his own mother, who was most likely dead. Who had been most likely dead for a better part of three decades. He thought of her often and knew she wouldn’t agree with his methods. From the little snippets of her he could remember, he knew she was a quiet, subdued person. If she’d ever do what Organa did… he was sure he would need more than a bottle of Rylothian Traminer to come to terms with it. 
> 
> He still wondered what to say, but Ren smiled at him in a terribly sad, knowing way as if he read his thoughts. Which he most likely had. 
> 
> The force enveloped Hux and dragged him closer to the bed, to Ren. He didn’t resist. Couldn’t, really. 
> 
> “What would you have done?” Ren whispered. 
> 
> “…this is not something you can just ask. This is not something anyone should have to answer.”
> 
> Ren looked up at him. His eyes were moist, framed with red. 
> 
> Hux hated him. Hated him for his violence. For the crude treatment he received from him. But though this was the perfect occasion to get back at him, he just couldn’t. Couldn’t take the opportunity, because somehow it felt like using it would condemn _him_ as well. 
> 
> “…she was wrong.” Hux whispered. 
> 
> “She wasn’t.” Ren shook his head and a tear rolled down his cheek. “She just wanted her Ben Solo.”
> 
> “But… you aren’t.”
> 
> “What am I not?”
> 
> “Ben Solo.”
> 
> “So what I am then? Kylo Ren? Supreme Leader? The Failed Jedi? The Loser? The Conqueror?” he kept asking, his voice growing smaller and smaller until it almost cracked. 
> 
> “You… are you.” Hux said simply. “You have no obligation to be anything else.”
> 
> It felt surreal, to comfort Ren like this. But for some reason it felt like he did it for his own sake as well. Somehow it seemed like the two of them were somehow… linked. Like their fates were intertwined. 
> 
> What a silly thought. Downright ridiculous. 
> 
> Ren looked up at him, blinking tears away, and then he grabbed Hux. Closed his arms around the general’s thin waist. Tore him down onto the bed. Before Hux knew what was happening, he was lying on the mattress with the Supreme Leader’s face pressed against his stomach and strong arms closed around his back. 
> 
> He knew he should’ve found this pathetic. He knew he should’ve found this an opportunity to strike; but somehow…
> 
> “Ren. Let go of me…” he said and to his surprise the Supreme Leader obeyed. 
> 
> This was followed by a muffled cry. “F-figures. You reject me too…” 
> 
> But Hux didn’t pull away. Instead he wrapped his arms around Ren and pulled him closer. The force user responded immediately. He buried his face in Hux’s front so tightly the general could feel the outline of his nose and chin. 
> 
> “She replaced me.” He whispered and the conviction behind that statement shook Hux to the core. 
> 
> “Don’t think about that.”
> 
> “Why? Why are you doing this? You’d throw me away as soon as you’d get the opportunity.”
> 
> “But that’s just because _you’d_ do the same.”
> 
> “No, I-“
> 
> “You’ve hurt me. You’ve insulted me. Only yesterday you hurled me against a console just because I’ve disagreed with your budget redirection. You did every little thing my father has done.”
> 
> “Your father is dead. You killed him.” Ren stated. 
> 
> “Yes, I did.”
> 
> “So you want to kill me as well?”
> 
> “Father kept insulting me. Putting me down whenever he could. He never did anything like _this._ ”
> 
> “What about your mother?” 
> 
> “Psst. Stop talking. She-…” Hux paused and recalled the chaos following the New Republic raid against Arkanis, the hell of incendiary bombs exploding everywhere. How he was dragged to the shuttle by Mercurial Swift, his wrist dislocated after a particularly desperate attempt to reach his mother. How his father hit him so hard when he tried to go back and save her, he split his lip and knocked out two baby-teeth. 
> 
> The last thing he saw of Arkanis was the academy disappearing in a storm of fire. The storm of fire which had swallowed everything and everyone - those cheeky kitchen hands, stuck-up chefs… but most importantly his mother. The mother, whose name he never learned. Who he never got to ask what made her get together with his father. Whose birthday eluded him. The mother, who-
> 
> At that moment Ren’s arm closed around his shoulders and pulled him on his side, so that both men were facing each other.
> 
> “I… should take my uniform off… “Hux muttered as he wetted his lips. 
> 
> “Why?”
> 
> “It will wrinkle.”
> 
> At that moment Ren smiled. It was such a genuine, moving expression, Hux couldn’t tear his look away. He couldn’t believe how handsome it made Ren in spite of those blotchy cheeks and puffy eyes. 
> 
> “Don’t worry about that. I’ll order you a new set. One with golden bands.”
> 
> And then he was buried in softness. The hands, which he always thought of as hard and calloused, caressed the nape of his neck and pulled him towards the smooth line of Ren’s throat. He didn’t resist. 
> 
> Those hands slowly travelled down until they rested on his back. The heat emanating from them felt strange, unusual. It was as if Ren’s palms held tiny suns which warmed Hux’s torso from within. The dull ache from his bruised ribs dissipated.
> 
> He looked at the Supreme Leader. Ren was much calmer now. He gazed at Hux with a tired, somewhat resigned expression. Technically they were even now. Each had come close to kill the other in the past and now each had comforted the other. Hux had every right to leave. He knew he _should_ leave. Leave while he still could. 
> 
> But even though Ren already withdrew his hands, Hux could still feel the ghost of their warmth. 
> 
> _This is madness_ \- his cautious side, the one which kept him alive for so long, warned him, though it wasn’t as much a warning as it was a sigh, for he already started to undress. The belt was placed on a table, jacket thrown over a chair, and once his jackboots were off, his jodhpurs, suspenders and socks followed.
> 
> When he turned back to the bed, Ren already sat there stripped down to his underwear. His hands were in his lap, face downcast.
> 
> “I… know I don’t deserve this. Not… not after… everything.” He whispered as if he spoke to himself. Which he maybe did. 
> 
> “Stop thinking in these terms.” Hux sighed and sat on the opposite side. “In this universe, things just _happen_. Virtue is sometimes rewarded and evil punished. But then again, sometimes it’s the blameless who have tragedies pilled upon them while the crooked get to live long, fulfilling lives. That’s just the way it is. No one _truly_ deserves anything and no one is truly undeserving.”
> 
> “So what do you consider yourself to be? A man of virtue? A sinner?” 
> 
> Hux turned around and gave Ren the slightest of smiles. 
> 
> “I’m me. I’m Armitage Hux and nothing but that. And you are Kylo Ren.”
> 
> “…and nothing but that.” Ren added and laid down on the mattress. His hand then reached out to Hux. This gesture made the general anxious. Comfort was one thing, but taking the hand of the Supreme Leader and the strongest force user in the galaxy was something completely different. 
> 
> “…if you ever betray my trust…” Hux warned him and slowly put his hand into Ren’s. 
> 
> “I’ll conquer the galaxy for you.” Ren replied and closed his fingers around Hux’s slender ones. “I’ll do it. As long as you’ll stay with me.”
> 
> There was a gentle pull. Hux closed his eyes and let himself be manoeuvred on the bed. He must’ve been really going insane, because for some reason what made his heart race was not the idea of Ren subjugating the galaxy for him, but that last sentence of his. 
> 
> “What about your mother?” Hux asked, struggling to retain any rationality. 
> 
> Ren had pulled him against his chest and now rubbed his back with long, gentle strokes. A sigh of pleasure escaped Hux’s lips before he could suppress it. He never felt anything similar in his entire life. It made him think of comets. Places where Ren’s fingertips touched the bare skin of his back felt fire-bright, and each motion left long, burning trails behind, which made him shiver as if he had the chills. A part of his mind couldn’t comprehend this. How could a simple¬ touch feel this way? After all, a touch was nothing but a point of contact, a tangency between two objects. He had never thought there was much difference between a blow and a caress apart from the lack of pain, but _this…_
> 
> “It doesn’t hurt as much. I’ll learn to live with it. I have to.” He distantly heard Ren reply. “I… I’m Kylo Ren. Nothing more and nothing less. And I’ll never betray your trust. So you’ll have stay with me. Forever.”
> 
> Hux hummed and tangled his legs with Ren’s. Their toes touched. It was strangely endearing. Another kind of hitherto unfelt sensation. Hux thought to himself that as long as Ren would continue to show him these new facets of what he had thought to be banal and pointless, no force in the universe would ever be strong enough to drive him away. 

**Author's Note:**

> The unconscious woman is Kaydel Ko Connix. I like to imagine as General Organa's adopted daughter. (I don't care much for Rey.)
> 
> Yeah... dealing with grief over losing my mum four months ago like any emotionally mature adult - by writing hurt/comfort fics and getting drunk, while acting like everything is a-okay at work.


End file.
